So if you’ve seen the news the past few days you probably noticed a story about an acid attack against a woman in Tehran. Essentially, what it boils down to is this: a man threw acid on her and she was severely burned and blinded, because of this she wants her attacker blinded by acid. Eye for an eye justice, literally, and figuratively (and then literally again). This being Iran it actually looks like this is going to happen due to their courts holding up that sentence.

I have very conflicted feelings about this whole issue. On one hand I want her attacker tried and convicted and then sent to prison for the rest of his life. On the other, more emotional hand, I want acid thrown in his face.

The way it’s playing out right now in the media is essentially, which is a better justice system: a western or an Islamic one? They are based off of completely different principles and yet have the exact same noble goal, and I personally don’t think either of them are perfect. Being an American I am extremely biased towards a western style justice system, but at the same time I find it flawed when dealing with the worst law breakers so maybe this eye for an eye thing wouldn’t be so bad in certain cases.

However, while I speak of this I have no sure fire way to implement such a system in a western style justice system and honestly don’t even want to begin to think about it (got better shit to do). All I know from this case is that I am not losing sleep over this man, or any others like him, being blinded for their actions. Fuck him and all those like him.

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2 responses to “Iranian woman blinded by acid attack”

The issue I have with the whole “eye for an eye”-based punishment system is that we’ve learned that revenge doesn’t change anything. It’s not a psychologically healthy way to deal with trauma. It might seem like a good idea at first and it might feel good at the moment, but it continues the circle of violence and pain and it does nothing to remedy the situation. It’s a very primal urge in humans to want the other person to feel the pain that they felt and all that does it make everyone miserable.

I also don’t know that putting someone in a jail cell for the rest of their life does the trick exactly. Even if the person learns from their horrible action, they never get a chance to show that. I guess it just prevents them from doing to anyone else again – unless they have acid in prison. In which case, the issue is that good people can do horrible things, so we might be putting people away forever based on one huge error.

That being said, throwing acid on someone’s face clearly means that he has a serious lack of respect for human life so whatever happens to him, he deserves.

That’s the problem I’m having with all of this. It’s a problem I know, but I run on spite and revenge. Sweet, sweet, revenge…

But the problem both you and I raise is that life in prison doesn’t seem to fit the crime. Something harsher seems to be needed, but at the same time our humanity hopefully steps in the way and prevents us from imposing a much harsher punishment.

In the end I agree with you: ain’t nothing we can do and the punishment in this case does fit the crime, so fuck it.